Quick Tip to Improve Dribbling Skills, Reduce Turnovers, and Better Simulate Games

I use a drill called keep away. everyone starts out with a basketball, and dribbles with head up. The object is to protect your ball, while attempting to get others away from them. As the crowd thins out, I confine them to smaller areas such as half court, then the foul line to baseline. this forces more pressure, and the kids are so alert to someone taking their ball, that they dribble with their head up without thought.

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Hi Jeff,

Pretty neat idea. I am a firm believer that your traditional drills only get you so far. I am waiting for my grade school bball players to ask where the cones are when we really play a game. Adding game situations will only increase their skills.

Of course, if any of you have coached grade school kids, almost every drill is chaotic without adding traffic. :)

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For younger youth a dribble game I use is called Jedi Challenge. It has another name too (can't remember), but I named it this because kids just love star wars.
Setup: Everyone (jedi) with a ball except one (sith – could be a coach if no one volunteers), enclosed area such as 3pt line (adjust as needed to accommodate # of players)
Execution: Players (jedi) dribble in the area while sith tries to steal, tie-up, or knock ball out. Lose your ball and you join the dark side. Steal a ball and you're a jedi again. All basketball rules apply (carry, out of bounds, double dribble, etc), violations = you’re a sith. Call own fouls = 5 second immunity. Last player with control of a ball is Jedi Master.
Variation: Loose your dribble and shoot, make it take it, but anyone who rebounds a miss is jedi again.

It can be very crowded for players to maneuver so good dribbling is essential for success. I even played this with my 8th graders but just called it Dribbling Drill. Ones that knew the game quickly declared it the Jedi Challenge and we played with the star wars characters from there on. It seems no one is too old for star wars.

Take care all,
Steve

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I PICKED THESE TWO DRIBBLING DRILLS UP OUT OF A MAGAZINE AND USE THEM IN MY MS PE CLASSES AS A 1-2 MINUTE WARMUP
DRIBBLE TAG- EVERYONE IS IT AND EVERYONE HAS A BALL. ON GO DRIBBLERS ATTEMPT TO TAG OTHER DRIBBLERS WHILE STILL MAINTAINING THEIR DRIBBLE. IF TAGGED PLAYERS HOLD BALL OVER THEIR HEAD AND DO 10 SLALOMS OVER THE NEAREST LINE AND GET BACK INTO THE GAME. ADDITIONAL PENALTIES INCLUDE DOUBLE DRIBBLE, LOSING CONTROL OF THE BALL OR GOING OFF THE COURT.
STEAL THE BALL- SAME THING BUT DRIBBLERS ATTEMPT TO FLICK THE BALL AWAY FROM OTHER DRIBBLERS WHILE MAINTAINING THEIR DRIBBLE. NO HACKING OR BUMPING OR YOU DO THE SLALOMS

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Have your player's use a tennis ball with one hand and a basketball on the other you pass the tennis ball back and forth while dribbling full court with your partner.

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coach b , i like that...forces head up and use of less dominant hand and can be easily modified around fun challenges or races

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This is actually a duplication of a basic soccer dribbling drill. In soccer you can''t really dribble with two balls, but much else is the same. Like soccer, to increase the instensity or difficulty you can simply diminish the space to be used.

Other drills I use are two vs four press breaker. In this drill, one dribbler with a teammate that can only receive a backwards pass. The other defenders can defend either player. You can go two vs three if you need. The dribbler must keep his head up and avoid double-teams while the teammate works to us space to be open and get the ball quickly back to the dribbler who is cutting to space to receive the return pass.

My best dribbler can beat the defense consistently. My 2-3 best are 50% successful. Also helps defense learn to trap and stay with cutters in open court.

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Joe, I need some coaching advise.

I coach seventh grade girls. I have a player on my team who is clearly my best ball handler and a great point guard. She's a general on the floor and always gives 110% at every aspect of the game. We're two games into the season and I've noticed, though, that the one area she's really lacking in is the fast break lay up. She tends to rush her lay up and as a result, it generally goes flat off the glass and bounces off the rim. It's pretty common for girls at this level (I've been coaching girls for a few years now), but do you have any suggestions for getting her to focus a bit more when she has a fast break lay up?

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I truly believe developing players is the most important goal ... but I also believe winning is important too. Even though winning is more important to coaches and parents, it is still important to kids (although kids seem to forget about it much quicker than we do). So, I strive to "develop players to win"--essentially to strike a balance between both development and winning, in practice and games. It's much more difficult to do both (especially since I don't have the same players every year, and the playing rules of the game change almost ever year at the younger ages). I haven't been as successful doing it in basketball as I've been in other sports. But, I'm still striving for that balance.

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Hi Gordon,

I'm currently coaching a 7th grade boys team that has a similar problem.

I like to run through 1on0 lay up drills from all different angles on the court: baseline, wing, top, half court, etc. How often do players shoot lay ups at a perfect angle during the game?

After the players have had some success with that, I like to add a defender to simulate game-like fast break situations. I'll start the defender behind the offense, across the court, or even slightly in front of the offensive player.

Here is one example: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/playcreator/view.asp?id=57&type=drill

Here is a fast break drill I like to run too with different numbers 3v3, 4v4, 5v5: http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/playcreator/view.asp?id=67&type=drill

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I coach 6-7 grade co-ed and use 2 drills to help:

1. speed dribble
Simulate a fast break with 2 players (1 offense, 1 defense). Offensive player starts at the end line with a the ball and dribble full court for a layup. The defender starts at a full court corner and trys to stop the dribbler. Teaches speed dribbling and finishing with the layup. Added benefit - cardio

2. alternate dribble drill
Use a short court or across the wdith. Line up half of the team on each side. Every player satrs with a ball. At the same time, everyone dribble 1 lap (back & forth) with R hand, then again with L hand, then alternate R-L as they dribble. They have to look up to avoid running into each other. As the kids improve, I start trying to steal the ball.
Teaches heads up dribbling with both hands

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For dribbling skills improvement, you may include 2 sets of road sprints after the routinary 15 (for kids) to 30-minute jog. In running a sprint, the motor coordination (arms and legs movements) becomes natural. Leg muscles become stronger for balance, aside from other leg exercises and drills for agility. See and feel the improvement in a matter of days. Reminder, sprints have got to be on the "road" or on a track and field setting. I do the sprints up to now literally on the road. At age 50, it's still a good feeling.

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Joe,

Could you give me any advice for helping my 7 year-old learn to dribble better? He wants to dribble the ball in front of him instead of beside him. I need some basic drills for a single player to help him improve. Thanks.

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Burke,

Here are some dribbling drills to choose from:
http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/drills/basketball-drills-players.html#ballhandlingdrills

The drills above (in this article) are good too, even if he's by himself. You could dribble with him in a small space to add distractions.

You can also have the player call out numbers (while you hold up your hand changing the 3 of fingers you have up) so they don't look down at the ball.

Also, keep in mind 7 year olds are not very good and should not be pushed. Steve Nash didn't play basketball until he was 13. Look at him now. Michael Jordan got cut when he was in high school. Look at him now. Basketball is a late blooming sport and you don't really become good until post puberty. Make sure he has lots of fun and is an active kid that can develop athletically. Don't get me wrong, dribbling is good for a youngster (especially if they like doing it). But things like martial arts, gymnastics, soccer, swimming, playing tag, flag football, climbing trees, and unstructured play is better for him to develop athletically at this age.

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good suggestions but do we have a drill where the number of available ball is few like 3 for the whole squad?

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Hey Joe,

I'm 6'1 and only 15 but I will not grow anymore but I'm a very good post player but I just need to get good ball handling and shooting cause my AAU coach says I will probably be converted into a small forward or something else when I get into high school ball. But either way I need to improve these skills to carry on my basketball career so give some ideas/drills I can do on my own.

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Braxton -

Someone didn't do you any favors as you were growing up by NOT teaching you how to play this game .... what I mean is that they didn't teach you all the skills you are talking about.

6'1 puts you on the perimeter.... one good thing is that you have some post play skills... not every has that advantage.

Look at the page below and if you look at the top left hand side of this page... under PLAYER DEVELOPMENT ..... you will find a lot of drills that can help you develop more skills.


http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/basketballfundamentals.html#

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Here are a few more pages...

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/shooting.html

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/ballhandling.html

http://www.breakthroughbasketball.com/fundamentals/individual_offense.html

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As a warm up for every practice, I have my team "dribble the lines". It's the old suicides drill, baseline, foul line, baseline, half court, etc, but dribbling a ball. The key is that half the team starts on one baseline, the other on the opposite baseline. So they have to weave through each other, keeping their eyes up to avoid colliding. We run it once with strong hand, twice with weak hand. Even changing direction, they can only use the designated hand. Finally, I have them dribble the lines with cross overs.

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Globtrouttrs. Pass the ball around waist, knees, ankles, right and left leg then figure eight. Then right and left leg and figure eight with dribbling. Keep your head up. High pounds, low pounds (both hands). Steph Curry drill? Two balls and the wall. Red, blue, and white. When someone says a color it stands for a hand that needs to touch the wall. White is both hands and red and blue is right and left hand.

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This is a great idea! Just practicing drills will not prepare players for the game. Thanks for sharing!

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